St Edmunds Hospital
St Mary's Square, Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk, IP33 2AA DirectionsPhone
Opening hours
Mon - Sun: 24 hours
Visiting hours for Inpatients are from 9am to 7pm.
Car parking
Parking available
Treatment focusing on the lungs, with the two main symptoms that patients present with being a cough and breathlessness
Respiratory medicine focuses on the lungs, with the two main symptoms that patients present with being a cough and breathlessness.
There are lots of conditions that can lead to this, says our Consultant Physician, who specialises in respiratory medicine here at The St Edmunds Hospital.
St Edmunds Hospital is located on the beautiful St. Mary's Square, just across from the Greene King Brewery in Bury St Edmunds. People visit us from Newmarket, Diss, Sudbury, Thetford, Woolpit and Mildenhall. We also see patients from Hadleigh, Stowmarket, Ely and Haverhill. If you’re living in one of these areas and looking for a private hospital near you, our team is ready and waiting to help you.
Below, we take a closer look at these symptoms.
If a patient has a persistent cough for more than three weeks, it does need to be looked at. If a cough has persisted for eight weeks or longer, though, it is referred to as a chronic cough.
Patients often worry that a cough can be an indicator of a serious underlying problem, so seeing a GP and having a chest x-ray is important.
Conditions that can cause a cough include:
It’s important to get an accurate diagnosis early on, so that you have the right treatment. Plus, we don’t want to miss a serious condition like lung cancer here in clinic, so it’s important to exclude this, or confirm, it at a very early stage.
If a cough is left untreated, it can become a chronic problem, which can impact the quality of a person’s life.
Breathlessness can indicate lung disease and shouldn’t be ignored. It usually occurs when you are trying to do something – i.e., breathlessness on exertion. This may indicate underlying lung problems, such as
Many other conditions can lead to breathlessness, and they are not all are related to the lungs, so it’s important to make sure that heart disease isn’t present, or other problems.
It’s also important to note that, with both symptoms mentioned above, an accurate and timely diagnosis is needed, so you’re not being treated for the wrong thing.
We also see patients who present with symptoms including:
*A simple test used to help diagnose and monitor certain lung conditions by measuring how much air you can breathe out in one forced breath; a spirometry is performed using a device called a spirometer. This is a small machine, which is attached by a cable to a mouthpiece.
This would be done during your consultation here at The St Edmunds Hospital, if needed.
At the end of the 45-minute consultation, our Consultant would have spoken to the patient, listened to their concerns, conducted an examination, performed a spirometry and taken an x-ray (if they didn’t already have one).
At the end of the consultation, our Consultant can usually:
Telephone and video consultations are available; however, they are limited in use (we can’t examine or perform a breathing test, for example) and they may only be more suitable for patients with long-standing conditions.
They can also be used for patients who might require a second opinion, but ace-to-face appointments will continue to be welcomed by both patient and clinician alike.
There are several reasons why you might choose The St Edmunds for your consultation.
If you are a self-paying patient, you can find out exactly what you will pay for treatment before you commit to anything.
Quiet Clinic Rooms
A tranquil setting with quiet clinic rooms, we can perform x-rays on site, which means you can have your x-ray at the same time as your respiratory consultation here at the hospital.
With 26 beds, each offering the privacy and comfort of en-suite facilities, views of the gardens, TV and high-speed Wi-Fi, The St Edmunds Hospital is a great choice for respiratory treatment.
There are three main theatres here, one of which has been installed with lamina flow (clean air filter system).
A Dedicated Day Case Recovery Area
We also have a dedicated day case recovery area in our comfortable conservatory, where you can relax after your day case procedure until you are discharged from our care. If you are staying with us, room service is provided to all inpatients by our catering team. Our chef creates daily special menus, and all dietary needs are catered for.
For those travelling by car, we have ample car parking spaces around the grounds, with a drop-off bay and disabled spaces directly opposite the entrance to the main hospital entrance.
These facilities, combined with the latest in technology and on-site support services, enable our Consultants to undertake a wide range of procedures within respiratory medicine. These include routine investigations mentioned above, and complex surgery.
A ‘One-Stop Shop’ for Patients
Allergy testing is also available here at St Edmunds Hospital – and it’s extremely convenient for the patient; they can get their results there and then (without waiting for tests to be sent off). The clinic is basically a ‘one-stop shop’, says our Respiratory Medicine Physician.
Here are a handful of reasons why you might choose The St Edmunds for your respiratory condition consultation:
You can also use our handy online booking system to make your appointment.